I. Am so. Sorry. I haven't updated in so long...I won't bore you with my (valid) excuses, but please forgive me... ;^;

On with the story!

It had been a few weeks since that glorious night full of Uno, fun and new friends. And true to Sam's words, her, Danny, and Tucker had become great friends in that span of time.

"C'mon guys, this way to Youngblood's lair!" Danny yelled over his shoulders at the two first-graders behind him. Tucker was gasping, his pleads to go slower wasted on deaf ears; Sam and Danny were having too much fun. Especially Sam, who just so happened to love the Ghost Zone in its entirety (dark and creepy stuff was her forte, after all).

"Ughh, Tucker, you're so sloww," She groaned playfully, successfully making Tucker run a little faster, sweat dripping down his nose. "Dang it, dang it," he gasped in between breaths.

The Zone rushed past as did time, and the trio eventually made it to Youngblood's lair. Not before a terrifying slip-up by Tucker (he almost fell off the glowing path and into the swirling abyss down below) and one run in with Johnny 13 on his flying motorcycle ("Hey lil' cuz and lil' cuz's friends. Where's Kitty? Ah, she's getting her hair done, I'm on my way now to pick her up now.") But yeah, after saying their goodbyes to Johnny, whom had also unsurprisingly taken a liking to Danny about a week ago, they had been on their way again.

"Wow, we made it," Sam gasped, bending down and resting her hands on her knees for support. "I don't know how you find your way around this place, Danny. The paths always change...I can't ever tell where anything is, no matter how many times we go there." She looked at him oddly. Danny shrugged, not sure how he was always capable of finding their destination either. "I dunno. But we're here! Let's see if Youngblood's home." Tucker and Sam nodded and Danny proceeded to stroll up the steps (which was a hard and slightly scary task, as the steps were floating above the abyss and were few and far between) and knock on the floating wooden door.

...no response. The three friends looked at each other in disappointment. "...But he said he'd be here today," Tucker whined. Sam stared at the door for a moment in slight anger. "He's a liar," she huffed, crossing her arms. Danny suddenly remembered that Sam had been especially excited to go to Youngblood's today because he had said that she could have one of his vampire figurines.

As Sam's expression became more and more cross, Danny decided to intervene. "Hey guys, its okay...there's always next time. Its not a big deal; maybe he had somewhere else he had to go. Let's just go home, okay?" Tucker nodded sullenly and started to turn around, but Sam wasn't convinced. "No," She muttered, uncrossing her arms. "We came all this way. What if he's just taking a nap or something, and he can't hear the door? I'm going inside." And before Danny or Tucker could stop her, she had already opened the door and barged right in.

Danny and Tucker looked at each other in slight worry before realizing that they had no choice but to follow her. "Sam," Danny said as he and Tucker walked through the doorway in slight trepidation. "It's a little rude to just walk in someone's house..." Danny didn't really feel right about this. Youngblood was his friend, but Danny always waited to be invited in when entering someone else's house, friend or not. Danny was polite that way, after all, he had been raised by his sister for most of his life; manners had been drilled into him quite a bit. "Yeah," Tucker mumbled, agreeing with Danny. "We especially shouldn't be rude to ghosts. No telling what they'll do to us if they get mad," He said, his voice trembling.

"Oh please," Sam replied, waving her hand in a dismissive manner. "Youngblood is our friend. He won't...suck out our souls, or you know, whatever ghosts do when you get 'em ma -- Agh!" She yelped as she promptly tripped over something on the floor. Tucker did not look reassured by her response at all. In fact, he looked even more terrified than before, his face ashen. "Can ghosts really do that?...hey, what the heck did you just trip over...?"

Danny stopped listening to their conversation as he looked around. Youngblood's lair was as messy as always, with toys and dress-up items littering the floor and rug. The lair consisted of three rooms: the living room, which the trio was currently in, the bedroom, which Danny had never been in, and the kitchen, which had a delicious smell wafting from it...Danny wondered if Youngblood was baking something for their visit? That would be very nice of him. Which would be weird, Danny thought, because Youngblood isn't very nice.

His musings were interrupted by Sam's yelling. "I'm sorry, are you okay?!!" He looked over to find Sam and Tucker standing over a peeved-looking glowing cat skeleton. "Yes, I'm fine. Thanks for tripping over me, silly girl. Now my back hurts and my nap is ruined." Sam had the decency to look a little apologetic as Danny walked over. "I recognize your voice. You're Youngblood's parrot." He remarked. I didn't know Youngblood's assistant could shapeshift.

The cat huffed. "I'm a cat as of now, boy, you don't call a cat a parrot just because he used to be one," He floated higher then sneered at them condescendingly. "I suppose you want to know where Youngblood is?" The trio nodded simultaneously. "Well, about an hour ago, he and I were playing cowboys. I was the horse, of course, and we were having a great time when all of a sudden we heard barking outside. We went to see what the noise was all about, and it turned out to be a small green ghost dog, obviously quite new to the Zone. It looked very confused, and Youngblood wanted it as his pet. But as Youngblood approached it, the dog ran away. Naturally, the boy chased after it, and I haven't seen him since. I decided to make some pound cake and take a nap while he was absent...I hope he comes back without the slobbering canine, I don't like dogs much..." The skeletal cat trailed off, obviously reminiscing about some bad experiences he had had with dogs.

The three friends stood there, waiting for the cat to stop reminiscing. But pretty soon it was obvious by the cat's face that he was now just fake-reminiscing so that the trio would leave. Sam sighed. "Let's just go," She said, sounding defeated. Danny and Tucker nodded and they turned to go, not missing the sigh of agitation and relief behind them.

"You guys can come to my house," Tucker offered as they strolled back along one of the Ghost Zone's few pathways. "My parents always welcome guests, and I have a new video game system that you can hook up to my PDA...it makes playing easier and more fun, in my opinion."

Danny was pleased to have somewhere else to go for the day, instead of just loitering around his house all alone again. Clockwork was out with the Observants doing...important stuff, so Danny couldn't go to the Clocktower either. He was about to enthusiastically agree with Tucker's proposition when a shrill shouting stopped him.

"GUYS! YOU GUYS!!"

Sam squinted up the path at the screaming figure that was approaching them. Her eyes suddenly widened. "Is that...Youngblood?" She asked in disbelief. Tucker squinted too.

"He looks kinda panicked."

Danny had to agree with Tucker on that one as Youngblood finally met up with them, panting and gasping for breath, sweat running down his paler-than-usual freckled face.

"Youngblood, what's the matter?" Danny asked in concern. "You were flying pretty fast there. Your cowboy hat almost fell off."

"Its...the...dog..." Youngblood panted. The trio looked at each other in confusion. The dog that he was chasing? What about it? Danny thought, thoroughly puzzled.

"I found a dog earlier," Youngblood said, his voice more steady now that he had gained his bearings. "It was really cool, and I wanted it as a pet. It was so hard to catch, though!" The child specter accented this last part by waving his hands around.

"Then what happen--"

"But then," Youngblood growled, properly interrupting Danny's question. "It seemed to smell something, and it went totally still. Before my very eyes, it transformed into a HUGE monster and lept right into the human world! I was so shocked I didn't even follow it through the portal it made! I decided to run back home, cause I didn't know what else to do..."

Sam laughed loudly next to Danny. "Hah! Like that happened. You were probably just making up stuff, like you always do," She scoffed.

Looks like she's still sour from him ditching out on us, Danny mused, wincing a bit at her harsh tone. Tucker shifted around on his feet nervously. "I dunno, Sam, you never know what to expect from ghosts..." he mumbled.

"Yes I do! I hang out with them almost every day!"

"But you're only seven, you can't know everything!"

"Yes I can!"

"No, you can't!"

"Man, I really wanted that dog..."

"OKAY, STOP!" Danny yelled, effectively gaining everyone's attention. "Me, Sam, and Tucker will find Wulf and go back to the human world. Then, we can all look for the dog there." Youngblood, Sam, and Tucker all looked at each other and nodded.

"Okay," said Danny, feeling triumphant.

"Let's go!"

£-£

"Tuck, stop eating the bait." Sam snapped, smacking the ham slices out of Tucker's hand and concealing it in her sleeve. "Its for catching the dog, not filling your bottomless pit of a stomach."

Tucker whimpered, his pupils dilating to cartoonish levels. "But meat so...good..." he mumbled, eyeing Sam's sleeve hungrily. She shoved her arm out of sight as Danny laughed.

The three friends had been walking around Amity Park for almost an hour, waving meat around and asking multiple people if they has seen a flying, glowing green dog around. Danny was 100% positive everyone that saw them thought they were crazy...or playing some really weird imaginary game. Which, to their credit, was a thing the trio did a lot (the three were starting to get fairly well known around town because they were always seen together).

"This is hopeless," Tucker muttered another 15 minutes later. "How're we supposed to find a ghost dog, anyway? It can 'prolly turn invisible. Is this ghost dog even still in the human world? Why do we even need to find it?? Do gHOST DOGS EVEN EAT HUMAN MEAT??" By this point Tucker was getting a little hysterical so Sam reeled back and promptly slapped him across the face. Tucker's mouth snapped shut, his hand rubbing his slightly hurt-looking face. "There," Sam said, dusting her hands off. "Annoying thing dealt with."

"Hey, I am not a thing!"

"You didn't deny the annoying part, though~"

The two stuck their tongues out at each other. "Wait," Danny said, musing over what Tucker had just said. "Maybe Tucker's right. Maybe the ghost dog only eats ghost food."

"Oh no," Tucker groaned. "It sounds so obvious when you say it like that!"

Sam was fuming. "I was holding this disgusting meat for nothing!" She screeched. She then threw said meat on the sidewalk. Her sneer of disgust only worsened when Tucker bent down and started eating it off the ground.

"Um..." Danny said, trying everything in his power to not look at a ravenous Tuck eat meat off of the ground.

"What? Five second rule, sheesh."

"Aaanyways, I was going to say that my parents always have the food that they accidentally fused with ectoplasm locked away in our freezer...maybe we could use that. And--don't ask me how it even got fused with ectoplasm in the first place, 'cause I have no idea."

Sam closed her mouth.

"Okay," Tucker said, wiping crumbs of meat off of his face. "Let's go to your house, Danny!"

And they were off again.

£-£

"Alright, to the kitchen!" Tucker exclaimed a little too enthusiastically when the trio finally made their way into FentonWorks.

Danny and Sam shook their heads fondly at their friend's antics as they followed a drooling Tucker into the kitchen.

"Well, you weren't wrong, Danny...this meat smells...contaminated..." Tucker grumbled, slamming the freezer door shut and plugging his nose with his thumb and pointer finger. "Ectoplasm smells bad. And not one of those meatloafs were normal!" Tucker looked disappointed and Danny already knew why.

"Maybe there's some regular ham in the refrigerator," He sighed as Tucker scurried to the other side of the kitchen, hope returning to his features.

"This smells...awful, Tuck was right," Sam grimaced as Danny handed her more meat from the freezer. "Woah," She suddenly said in mock surprise. "Tuck was right."

"Hey!"

"Lets just get out of here," Danny said, ignoring them. "No telling when my parents might randomly pop out of the lab and catch us stealing radioactive food--"

"--Wait, radioactive?" Sam interrupted him. "Isn't it dangerous to be near this stuff, then?"

Danny thought about that for a moment. ...Is it?

He shrugged. "I dunno. Just don't eat it, I guess."

Sam looked a bit miffed at the vague answer, but didn't comment about it as she adjusted the stack of glowing meat chunks in her hands. "Should this be enough?" The vegetarian asked as Tucker re-joined them, the area around his mouth greasy.

Danny was about to reply when he heard something. The loud, mettalic sliding noise of the lab door opening. Two sets of boots thumping up the stairs, the wood creaking all the while. "Quick, stuff everything back in the freezer!" He hissed and Sam immediately obeyed, Tucker frantically helping her.

The three closed the freezer door and turned around just before Danny's parents entered the kitchen, looking strangely excited and not like their usual tired selves.

Jack started to walk towards the trio and Danny fully expected him to turn at the last moment to get some fudge from the cupboards but...he didn't. He stopped right in front of Danny and his friends.

Danny's breath caught in his throat.

"Danny-boy!!" Jack boomed all of a sudden, leaning down to the children's level and promptly giving Danny a heart attack. "You'll never believe what we managed to get today!" The bear-like man started shaking Danny's minuscule shoulders a bit in excitement.

Danny just stared at him in disbelief.

"Well?! Guess!"

Danny was flabbergasted. Was...he supposed to respond? He couldn't remember the last time his parents had talked to him, let alone acknowledge his existence. Did they seriously not realize how they had ignored him? Why were they looking at him now with such excitement and happiness? Why were they looking at him like that?

Danny could feel he was on the verge of tears and stopped them quickly. He would not cry. He wouldn't. Sam and Tucker were right there, and he wouldn't cry in front of them, either. But now that he glanced at them, he noticed that they both looked a little angry...

"Son?" Danny heard Jack's voice again, large hands still encompassing his shoulders. His brows furrowed a bit. You can't call me that, only daddy can call me that...you aren't my...

"Danny, you can hear me, right?" Danny mentally shook his head and knew he had to answer eventually. "Um, y-yes, what did you g-guys get?..." He asked with a weak grin. Danny's mother walked forward with a big smile, neither of them seeming to notice Danny's inner turmoil or stutter in his speech.

"Danny, we caught a ghost," She said, her lavender eyes sparkling, and Danny's heart stopped.

_________________________________________________________________

I leave you for so long, and I return with .....

This...monstrosity.

I am so sorry, I really am, and I PROMISE (for real this time) that the next chapter will be up in like, a week. Just remember that I am a sophomore, and I have school, and I don't get paid to do this, and I have a lot of hectic shit going on in my life right now...

I am so sorry that this chapter sucks. I tried, I really did! But ugh I've just got so much on my mind recently...

Anywayyyys, vote if you enjoyed! Please! It fuels mehh

~Golden

((P.S. Please tell me if I have any spelling or grammatical errors! I don't have a beta reader so I edit everything myself and that's kinda hard sometimes))